Jim & Pat Healey's CanAmAthon Golf Odyssey

As published in OB Golf & Lifestyle Magazine, Indonesia

April - May 2011 issue

www.obgolfandlifestyle.com

Several years ago, avid American golfers, Jim & Pat Healey set-out on a unique 61-day golfing odyssey crossing into all 50 US states, Washington DC and 10 Canadian provinces.  The endeavor had the husband and wife team playing a round of golf every day, followed by a flight, drive or boat ride to the next state or province on their pre-set agenda.

Very few people have accomplished this arduous golfing feat.  What makes this accomplishment more astonishing is that the retired couple successfully completed the 61-day journey while in their seventies (at the time Jim was 74 years old, his wife Pat was 72).

Jim & Pat titled their journey “CanAmAthon” in recognition of their golfing “marathon” across Canada and America.    They provide the following summary of CanAmAthon, from their home in Hudsonville Michigan, 5KM from Sunnybrook Country Club, their home golf club since 1964.

A daily journal can be found on the web at: www.canamathon.com

CanAmAthon

in their own words, by

Jim and Pat Healey

Introduction

Between the two of us we have been playing golf for 115 years.  Jim started playing at the age of 13, and Pat began the year we were married in 1956 (50 years ago).  Jim has played quite steadily through the years, at least once a week, but usually 2 or 3 times weekly (during Michigan’s golfing season - April to September).  Pat played occasionally through the years; however she spent more time at the swimming pool with our four children than she did on the golf course.  After the children were grown, Pat began to get more serious about the game of golf.

Jim practiced hard on his game through the years, and reached his best handicap of 8 when he was about 35 years old.  (An 8 handicap means that he scored in the high seventies or low eighties most of the time.)  For the majority of his golfing life, his handicap hovered between 10 and 12.  He has had one or two scores in the high 60s on easy courses (5500 yards), but his best score on a course of 6000 yards or greater was 74.  He has had several scores of 74 on Sunnybrook Country Club, which is our home course since 1964.

Pat’s best rounds have been in the mid-90s and her handicap averaged around 25 in her prime.  She now carries a handicap in the low to mid-thirties and fights to break 110 at Sunnybrook Country Club.

We have traveled considerably in our 55 years together and have played a lot of golf around the world.  Prior to CanAmAthon, we had played in 28 states, 5 Canadian provinces, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, St. Croix, Bermuda, Ireland, Scotland, England and Portugal. 

One sleepless night in late 2004, Jim came up with the idea to play in every state.  He approached Pat with his plan at breakfast the next morning.  After some initial reservations, we both concurred that we might be able to make the attempt.  In the next few days we refined our plan.  We originally thought about playing in all 50 states in 50 days.  Since Jim’s dad was Canadian, we added 10 Canadian provinces for a total of 60 days. We decided to include Washington DC  (a governmental region within mainland USA), making it a 61-day journey.

Early in 2005 we started the preliminary planning and had the trip quite well organized in early August.  We began our CanAmAthon on August 20, 2005 at beautiful Anchorage Golf Course in Anchorage, Alaska, and completed the journey on October 19, 2005 at beautiful Pearl Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii.

We knew that it would be impossible to do something like this without a lot of planning. We actually worked on it for several months before we mentioned anything about it.  We used an atlas of North America and began mapping our route.

As we were organizing the route and thinking more about this odyssey, it entered our mind that it could be quite expensive. Motels, food, golf fees and gasoline could add up to at least $14,000, which would be prohibitive. We were so carried away with the excitement of the trip that we didn’t take into account the hard financial realities.  Once we had our route mapped, we had to find a way to cut expenses. We knew that our air travel would be free since our son Ken is a pilot with Delta Airlines, providing us free air travel. We knew that we would drive about 14,000 miles, costing about $2000 worth of gasoline, and there was no way to cut gasoline costs.

We estimated the golf fees would run US$5000 to US$6000. What could we do to minimize the cost? After locating our prospective courses, we wrote letters to each of them telling about our intended CanAmAthon.  We asked if they would give us a reduced rate on either the green fee or cart fee, or both.  We included stamped post cards for them to fill out and return to us.  We were pleasantly surprised when most of the post cards were sent back to us, and that so many of the courses responded favorably to our request. Some of those who didn’t respond favorably had a change of heart when we finally arrived at the golf course on the appointed day.  Many then gave us reduced rates or even at no-cost.

Lodging costs for 63 nights of motels figured to be about $5000. What could we do in this area? We wrote to some of Pat's cousins in eastern United States, some of Jim’s Canadian cousins and several long time friends, asking for one or more nights of free lodging. We were quite successful in the fact that that we were invited into peoples homes for 24 nights. This also meant that we spent very little on food during those days. Not only were we offered a bed, but we were quite well fed.

There were 11 different relatives and friends who were kind enough to welcome us into their homes for one, two and even four nights. You might be wondering about the 4 nights at one place. When we stayed in the US state Rhode Island, we were very close to golf courses in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.  When we stayed in Maryland, we were very close to golf courses in Deleware, Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland. We were able to play 8 courses from only 2 locations. Similar circumstances prevailed as we traveled along the Canadian border from Minnesota to British Columbia.

In all, we stayed 24 nights with friends and relatives and 2 nights at our home when we played our Michigan round.  We had 3 nights when we didn’t have lodging----we flew the all night “red eye” from Alaska to Salt Lake City, Utah at the beginning of our trip, and we flew all night at the end of our trip from Honolulu to Cincinnati. We also took the all night ferry from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia. The remainder of the 34 nights we stayed in motels.

Prior to leaving on the trip, we worked with Mick Force, a software programmer with Handicomp (www.handicomp.com) to establish a website which would completely record our trip on a daily basis.  We had two laptop computers with us.  Every night Jim would assemble the pictures on one computer and Pat would type the daily journal on the other.  We would then assemble the pictures and script and email the complete journal to Mick, and he would post it on the CanAmAthon website the next morning. 

Sometimes we would fall a day or two behind in our postings.  Usually this was because we were visiting friends and relatives, and it was difficult to break away from the conversation to compose the journal.  Several people who were following our journey via the website emailed us with their concerns if we missed a day or two.  Some said they had "CanAmAthon withdrawal symptoms" as well as being concerned about our welfare.  For the most part we kept up to date.  On some days if we had a long drive after golf, we would compose the journal as we traveled.  Pat or Jim would drive and the other would work the laptop computer.  During the whole 9-weeks we received about 400 emails and we had over 20,000 website hits.  We really appreciated the emails from friends and strangers alike.  They were encouraging and helped to keep our spirits up.

MEDIA: As we were leaving the motel in Salt Lake City for our third round of golf at WingPointe Golf Course, our mobile phone rang.  It was Tom Rademacher, a writer from the Grand Rapids Press (Michigan), wanting to do an interview about our venture.  He had spoken with family members in Grand Rapids and wanted to get more information directly from us. The telephone interview resulted in an article that appeared in the next day’s news.

Tom Rademacher put his article on the Associated Press wire which sparked an international interest in our golf odyssey. That was one of the surprises of the trip, that there was so much interest from various media.

During the trip we were interviewed by 14 newspapers, on 8 radio talk shows, and met at 5 different golf courses by television cameras and reporters.  Our story appeared in countless newspapers including USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and others. We were featured on several international cable channels including the Golf Channel and the Weather Channel.  We were also featured on several national radio talk shows.

One of the first questions the reporters asked us was WHY?  Well, we suppose it comes from the same mentality that drives the mountain climber, long distance swimmer, or other people who engage in extreme activities.  These people are attempting extreme feats to prove both their physical and mental strengths.  We both love to travel and love to play golf, so we thought we’d try to test our endurance and see if we could actually do it.

We might add that much of the interest came early in the trip, and it had us worried that it would be an embarrassment to all concerned if we should be unable to complete the trip for any one of several reasons such as illness, car problems, or bad weather.  Also, many of the golf courses had let us know that they had some welcoming ceremonies awaiting our arrival, and we certainly didn’t want to disappoint them.  Perhaps the fear of failure was one of the driving forces that kept us going.   It has certainly become a story that we’ve been asked to tell many times over.